November 23, 2005

As the country readies for the annual turkey-a-thon, I give you some thanksgiving leftovers from the Corner Table*. This tidbit of advice was one of the most favored posts of all time. While it posted last year, the sage advice is as fresh as the day it was canned.

Give 'Em What They Want I recently found myself smiling and nodding patiently as a friend described the elaborate menu she had planned for her first family Thanksgiving dinner. With dishes like crab bisque, soufflé, and pumpkin cheesecake, it sounded like a wonderful meal—and, based on my experience, a horrible idea.

My family's Thanksgiving menu comes from my father's great-aunt Irene. She lived in Connecticut, and each year, fed a very traditional meal to as many as 40 guests. Successive generations have strived to duplicate every element, from the mashed turnips to the white-turkey platter to vats of gravy and the homemade cranberry relish. Then, about 12 years ago, I moved back from Paris, where I'd been cooking in Michelin-starred restaurants. Proud of my newfound culinary skills, I decided to spruce up the cranberries with some orange zest and nicely toasted chopped walnuts. Très gourmet. At the first taste, the table erupted in protest. These are not Aunt Irene's cranberries! What is this!?! I went from soignée to sheepish in the space of one bite. Turns out that Aunt Irene was a devotee of the recipes that came on the ingredients' packaging—including the bag of Ocean Spray cranberries. Deviation from that pattern was not to be tolerated.

So, in the years that followed, my family has added another tradition: telling that story. Remember the year Jenny made those fancy cranberries? Oh, yeah… they were awful. We now start each meal with a toast, originally coined for Christmas but equally relevant to Turkey Day: "Give 'em what they want."

*While the Corner Table has been vacated, you can find a collection of them at my archiveblog snackfile. It is a work in progress, but ultimately I hope to have them all there. If there’s one you miss, let me know, I can move it to the top of the transcription list. Note to self: ask Santa for an intern-elf.

November 21, 2005

The next official word from Michelin HQ should hit email in-boxes in the next few days. In spite of the maelstrom of critical (and some downright ugly) press following the Michelin NYC guide’s debut, they’ll report a smashing success and complete sell out of the first 100,000+ books, necessitating a second printing. While the media was quick to jump on the Michelin-bash bandwagon, let’s see how much press traction the super-sales release gets.

The news everyone wants is on the second city. But the powers that be claim there is no official word on venue or date of publication. My sources say ground work for the next guide, a San Francisco-Los Angeles combo, is already in progress. If I were the betting type, I’d lay odds that the California roll-out will follow the NYC paradigm. Big announcement at the beginning of the year, with book to follow in the fall. As I’ve said before before Thomas Keller’s French Laundry is a shoo-in for three stars, which will give him the first American six-star crown. (Though he’ll have to open a new place to match Ducasse’s trifecta). And who will wear the three-star crown in LA? The wolf? The orange? The big questions will be how many stars does Alice Waters get at Chez Panisse? Of course, the guide must include Berkeley and this iconic American eatery. But it’s not really a three-star, is it? Sources say anything less than two would be scandale. Then there’s the inclusion (or exclusion) of ethnic restaurants - which caused quite a ruckus in Gotham. Perhaps La Panchanguera will be the first ever Michelin rated taco truck.

November 18, 2005

While I don’t oft use snack to respond or rebut things online, I am an avid reader of the blogosphere. Today the boys at Eater bring our attention the foodie matchmaking services just launched by the Amateur Gourmet. Fine, but what about all the lonely winos oneophiles? Like Rocky Mountain Man, the 45-year-old Leo looking for a wine-minded lady in Minneapolis? Check out Grapedates, free online personals for “sophisticated singles with refined tastes.”

November 14, 2005

My tvland source has informed me that Fox’s Kitchen Confidential will not return from its baseball hiatus until December 5th. Even though another three scripts have been ordered (a good sign) it has been pulled from the November sweeps lineup (a bad sign).The next episode, Rabbit Test, features a new addition to the kitchen: a tough girl cook named Becky, played by Erinn Hayes. She’s presumably based on Bourdain’s assistant, Beth Aretsky, immortalized forever in the book as “The Grill Bitch”. (Note the moniker was assigned with love and respect and is proudly worn. And deserved. You do not want to mess with her.) If 21 days is too long to wait and see the locker room action, watch it here now.

Over on the Travel Channel, sources say studio execs are high-fiving on their programming coup. Bourdain’s No Reservations is already in production on a complete second season, with the third “under discussion.”

Seems the real McCoy has greater appeal than the Starr-y version. Indeed, women around the world are dreaming of Tony.

November 04, 2005

It’s been 305 days since I first wrote about the red guide coming to New York City, and now I have finallythe book in hand. In hindsight, the race for the story was much more exhilarating than the actual results.

The contents of the first American book have been sufficientlydissected, assessed and dissed this week by food writers around the world. Amidst the avalanche of coverage, what can I add?

The book purports to be a selection of the best 502 restaurants in all five boroughs. It is not the list I would have compiled, but then I am not a Frenchman trained in the wiles of the inspection process.

You may ask: why did it take Michelin so long to get here? Is Gotham just now reaching the red guide’s standards? Consider Le Bernardin’s uninterrupted, 19-year reign of New York Timesfour-star excellence. Theoretically, they could have gotten trois macaron back in 1986. My guess is, it’s the corporate mantra of expand or perish, and make new books for new markets. How many diners (and potential tire buyers) are there in America? Add the fact that it’s been widely reported that European chefs have been less and less enthused about the stars (nay some have tried to return them), given the increasing financial impossibilities of achieving and maintaining the top ratings. So let’s ship Bibendumto the new world.

Of course the hot topic is: What relevance does Michelinhave here? That will not be determined this week. The impact can only be judged over time. Michelin publishes annually. Will business have increased for those with stars? What are the demotions, promotions, deletions and additions? How many people will go to the party next year? How about 10 years from now?

I happened to see le maître, chef Paul Bocuse, on Wednesday afternoon. Circo, it seems, was the place to lunch before the main event. When asked if he was in town for the Michelin, and he nodded, mais oui. And what did he think of the stars? “Yes it’s very exciting,” but then he looked away with a small frown and said “but we are sad for Daniel.” Then he shrugged, “You know the Michelin, it’s very complicated.” Then he turned and, with a smile, said, “You know, I have had my stars for 41 years.”

Is Michelin relevant? Let’s see whose stars are stillstanding in the 2047 guide.

By the time the hundreds of guests had assembled in the rotunda of the Guggenheim Wednesday night to fete the first American red guide, the details of the book had been discussed, dissected and assessed. The atmosphere was relaxed, jovial and attentive. A little after 8PM, Jean-Luc Naret took the podium to make the announcement – which was basically we’re here, we’re Michelin and here come the books! The thousand guides were piled high on silver trays ported by a fleet of waiters that made the spiral descent into the crowd to hand them out like Halloween candy. (I’m sure there would have been a nice toast, had they not run

out of champagne a half-hour earlier.) Everyone reached for

acopy and the stars happily signed their entries for the adulating crowd – a teeming mass of chefs, media, publicity folks, a model and a DJ, and a guy in a Michelin man suit, doing the worm. After the flashbulbs died down, people started to disperse into the night. Most of the restaurants had celebrated their stars on Tuesday evening, so many chefs simply went back to work or out to dinner.

I’d ruminated and queried sources on the party possibilities all day and will confess that all of my speculation was wrong. I’d have guessed they’d bring up all the European three-star chefs to welcome their New York brethren into the fold. (My personal highlight was meeting Guy Savoy.) Or perhaps announce the imminent arrival of the Michelin California Guide for 2007. (The obvious road to travel for the next US edition, which would make Thomas Keller the first American to have two three-star joints –though Chicago is worth the detour and would be a smarter second choice.) All in good time.

November 03, 2005

For all the non-financial foodies without access to Bloomberg News, here’s a breaking story to read while I compose my Michelin post-party report.

Foie Gras Debate Splits Chicago as Chef, Mayor Duel Over Ducks

2005-11-03 00:06(New York)

By Christopher Martin

Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) --

Chicago, the city with a history of stockyards and steakhouses, has erupted in violence over a matter of greater culinary delicacy: foie gras.

Aldermen may vote this month on a proposal to make Chicago the first U.S. city to ban the sale of the fattened livers of force-fed ducks and geese. The debate has split the city: On one side is Chicago's most famous chef, Charlie Trotter, who won't serve it; on the other is Mayor Richard M. Daley, who says foie gras should remain on restaurant menus.

Amid the back-and-forth, Cyrano's Bistrot and Wine Bar in the city's tourist-heavy River North neighborhood had a window smashed and a door smeared with fake blood last week after Chef Didier Durand protested any ban. For Chicago, the issue marks an evolution in the taste of a town more familiar with bratwurst and beer than the haute cuisine of duck and goose liver.

``The main obstacle is that nobody around here knows what it is or how it's produced,'' says Alderman Joe Moore, 47, a Democrat from Chicago's North Side who proposed the ban after learning about the treatment of ducks from Trotter. ``We're more of a steak-and-ale kind of city. This is different than killing and eating a cow; you're actually torturing little animals before you eat them.''

Foie gras producers can fatten a duck liver to 12 times its normal size by pouring a pound of cornmeal down the bird's gullet three times a day for as many as four weeks before slaughter. Protests against the technique, which animal rights activists liken to torture, emerged after the freshly prepared dish gained popularity in the U.S.in the 1990s.Producers such as Ferndale, New York-based Hudson Valley Foie Gras say waterfowl aren't harmed in the process because the birds naturally overfeed to build energy for weeks before their biannual migrations.

Limited Time

In Chicago, 19 restaurants list foie gras on their menu, according to Tribune Co.'s Metromix guide. Sales to the area have doubled in the past couple of years, says Jacques Bissonette, export manager for Palmex Inc., a foie gras farmer in Quebec and one of three in North America.

``People are ordering foie gras more than ever because they don't know how much time they've got left,'' says Jorge Chaux, a waiter at Cyrano's Bistrot, which police say was vandalized the night after Chef Durand spoke against the ban at a city council meeting Oct. 25. Durand was traveling and unavailable to comment.

The Norfolk, Virginia-based advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, known as PETA, supports bans on foie gras. While Trotter doesn't support government involvement in menu selections, the chef says he's comfortable with his role as an accidental leader in the movement against foie gras, which is typically served as an appetizer for about $15 to $20.

`It's Grisly'

``I'm not exactly Mr. PETA, but I've been to a couple of foie gras farms,'' says Trotter, 45, whose namesake restaurant offered the delicacy until about four years ago. ``I've witnessed the process, and it's grisly to put it mildly.''

Daley, 63, has said restaurants would probably serve foie gras under different names should the ban win approval by the city council. ``Our inspectors can't go out and test it,'' Daley said last week, adding that he enjoys foie gras, according to the Chicago Tribune. Daley's office declined to elaborate.

The proposal passed unanimously in the 14-member health committee on Oct. 25 and needs 26 votes to pass the full council, says Moore, who has been calling fellow aldermen to discuss the merits of the proposal. He may bring the ban to a vote at the next council meeting on Nov. 30.``One chef told me he sells it to less than 10 percent of his customers,'' Moore says. ``It's a luxury for the wealthy.''

Cow Town

Chicago is more familiar with cows and pigs than goose liver. Labeled ``hog butcher for the world'' by Carl Sandburg in a 1916 poem, the city was home to the world's largest cattle and hog stockyards, producing 82 percent of the meat consumed in the U.S. in the early decades of the 20th century. The last of the stockyards closed in 1971 as automation took over.

Today, the third-largest U.S.city has the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the world's largest futures exchange, where a record 4.5 million contracts conferring the right to buy or sell live cattle traded last year, along with 3.2 million contracts on lean hogs.

The practice of force-feeding geese began with the Egyptians almost 5,000 years ago, and French chefs have refined the technique for more than two centuries. Until the late 1980s, when the first commercial foie gras farms opened in New York and California, U.S.diners were limited to cooked, tinned blocks of imported pate.

Hudson Valley Foie Gras says it produces more than 220 tons a year, or about 75 percent of the U.S.total, from farms that opened in New York's Catskill Mountains 14 years ago by former bond trader Michael Ginor and Israeli-born duck breeder Izzy Yanay.

California last year banned the force-feeding of birds and the sale of foie gras starting in 2012, becoming the first state to pass such a restriction.